


Time for Tea

by kindness_to_the_rejects



Category: A Court of Thorns and Roses Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: F/M, I just really like this new ship, One Shot, POV Nesta Archeron, they seem so cute, very slight Nesta/Cassian
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-17 13:28:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29593488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kindness_to_the_rejects/pseuds/kindness_to_the_rejects
Summary: SPOILERS FOR A COURT OF SILVER FLAMES.....Nesta didn't wake up that morning expecting to talk with first Az and then Gwyn about the new development in their relationship. Why they don't try talking to each other about it, she doesn't know.
Relationships: Azriel/Gwyneth Berdara, Nesta Archeron & Azriel, Nesta Archeron & Gwyneth Berdara
Comments: 6
Kudos: 103





	Time for Tea

**Author's Note:**

> Again - spoilers for A Court of Silver Flames! Also - am I the only one very, very into Az/Gwyn? Also, also - I wrote and edited this quickly, so I apologize for any small typos!

Gwyn was almost late to training that morning. She rushed through the door leading from the House, her face flushed and her copper hair slightly damp, like she hadn’t given herself the time to dry off after her morning bath.

Emerie and Nesta exchanged a look. “Where have you been?” Nesta asked, as she idly drew a sword from the practice rack. 

“The library,” Gwyn said, breathless. “Where else?”

“You usually get here earlier than most of us,” said Emerie mildly.

“I - well, this morning I - I didn’t,” Gwyn stuttered lamely, and flushed as she reached for her own practice sword. 

As she moved, her scent drifted to Nesta and she wrinkled her nose in confusion. Gwyn smelled slightly different. Under her usual scent of lilac, old parchment, and the library’s clear-cut smell of stone, there was a very slight trace of something - someone - else. 

“Gwyn!” Emerie gasped. “Did you spend the night with someone?!”

“What? No!” But Gwyn flushed even deeper. 

“I smell...someone,” Nesta said. “I’d swear it’s familiar. Is it someone I know? You must have bathed at least three times this morning to make it so faint.”

“I only bathed twice,” Gwyn muttered. “Nothing - happened. I just...spent time with a friend.”

“Alright. A male friend? And all night long?” Emerie asked, an amused glint in her eye. 

Gwyn sniffed and declined to answer. 

Cassian strode in then from the House, adjusting the straps around his wrists which kept his Siphons fixed to his hands. 

“Alright, ladies,” he said to the gathered females, who turned to give him their attention. 

“This morning’s training will be altered, because Azriel can’t be here this morning. We’ll all be training together in one unit, which gives us a perfect chance to perfect our coordinated fighting techniques. And,” he said, eyes twinkling, “drills.”

The females groaned and turned to mumble to each other. Drills, repetitions of coordinated movements they ran through over and over as a unit, were one of their least favorite exercises. 

“Where’s Az this morning?” Nesta asked, moving to stand next to her mate. “Did he discover news on Koschei?”

“I don’t know - I don’t think so,” Cassian said. “Rhys told me minutes ago, said Az just sent him a message to tell me he wouldn’t be by today.” Using Rhys’ daemati gifts, he meant. Rhys sometimes grumbled about being the court’s carrier pigeon, but he almost always complied when he was asked to relay messages. 

“He didn’t explain why?”

“No,” Cassian said. “But it’s Az. He’ll tell us when he’s ready, which may be in sixty years for all I know.”

“Hmmm,” Nesta said, her eye on Gwyn. “He’s usually very reliable about training, though.”

“Should I be concerned you’re so interested in my brother’s whereabouts?”

She gave him a dry look. “Just come with me,” she said, tugging his elbow and walking over to where Emerie and Gwyn were stretching. 

“Bossy this morning,” he said.

She cut him a slashing grin and turned to her friends. 

“Did you hear that, Gwyn? Az is out, he won’t be able to work with you on your dagger skills like the two of you have been doing lately,” she said, folding her arms.

Gwyn didn’t look at her, instead stretching for her toes where she sat on the ground. 

“That’s fine. I’ll see him another time.”

“I can work with you after, if you…” Cassian began, until a slight breeze wafted past them and he stiffened. He shot Gwyn a quick, confused look. 

“Did you see Az this morning?” he asked her.

She looked up, cheeks turning red. “What, why?”

“You - “ he was about to say, when Nesta tugged at his elbow again and they veered over to the side of the practice ring. 

“What?” he asked Nesta. “What is going on with you this morning?”

“I knew it,” she said, ignoring him. “I knew it was familiar - it was just so faint, I couldn’t tell. I needed you to confirm.”

“Nesta,” Cassian said patiently. “Why does Gwyn smell like my brother?”

“Oh, I think they spent the night together,” she said lightly. 

“What?” he squeaked. 

“Keep your voice down,” she hissed, edging him even farther from the others doing their warmups in the ring. 

“Az is in love with Mor,” he whispered. 

She gave him a look. “He hasn’t been in love with her for months now. He’s been too busy staring at Elaine every chance he gets.”

“I - Elaine?” he asked. “Then why was he with Gwyn?”

“Because he and Gwyn have been getting closer lately, and well,” she shrugged, “Who knows, maybe their feelings are getting deeper. I think he and Elaine are only attracted to each other on a physical level anyway.”

“How do you know all this? Did Az tell you this?” he asked, looking baffled.

She rolled her eyes. “No, Cassian, I have eyes and pay attention. That’s all.”

He was about to respond when light suddenly flashed off one the windows of the House, almost like it was trying to draw her attention. She looked at the window in time to see tendrils of shadow creep out of view.

“I’ll be back,” she told her mate, heading for the House.

“I - Nes!” Cassian said. “You owe me an explanation later!”

She turned to blow him a kiss as she walked before she strolled into the House without another word.

She found Azriel in the kitchen, holding a cup of steaming tea and looking out the window that faced the practice ring. He didn’t blink or turn her way as she came to stand beside him. A second cup of tea sat on the counter next to him.

“Your House just deposited these,” he said, lifting his cup slightly, which looked ridiculously delicate in his large, scarred hand. “Apparently it thinks you and I are in for a chat.”

She gripped her own teacup and blew at the steam before taking a sip. Rosehip and honey - her favorite.

They stood for a moment in silence.

“We only slept,” he said at last. “We sat talking so long, she fell asleep. I didn’t want to wake her.”

“Hard to imagine you talking so much with anyone,” she said.

He only gave her a dry look, and took another sip of his own tea.

“Where were you?” she asked. “Surely not her rooms in the library. And you weren’t here.”

“The town house,” he said. “No one’s staying there now.”

“Have you done this before? The two of you?”

“We’ve never...we usually only spend time together. We’ve...gotten in the habit of trying new foods, new restaurants together in Valeris when she’s done with her work in the evenings. Then we began spending time together after dinner when the town house was open. Just reading, talking, nothing much. Then …” he shook his head.

“Then you talked so long you fell asleep,” she said.

They were quiet a moment, then she asked, “New foods? What started that?”

He nodded out the window at Gwyn, who was now practicing back-to-back fighting maneuvers with Emerie. “You know how brave she is. She’s trying to branch out more and more from the safety of the library. She said one way she could start would be by being adventurous with food, so we,” he paused to smile, “we look for the most outlandish food we can find. Squid eyes, birds nest soup, fried tarantulas…” he trailed off at the scrunch of her nose in distaste.

“That sounds disgusting,” she said bluntly, and he chuckled. “And very sweet,” she added.

He didn’t say anything back. 

“Are you in love with her?” she asked softly.

He looked at her swiftly and she felt she saw a flash of confused anguish before he smoothed his face into his signature impenetrable mask. 

“I don’t know,” he said. “But I enjoy, almost crave being around her, more than…”

She waited. 

“I don’t know,” he said again. “But I do know she deserves someone better than me. Someone with less blood on their hands.”

She placed one of her hands on one of his scarred ones. 

“That’s bullshit,” she said. “What does she have to say about that?”

“We haven’t talked about it,” Azriel said. “This morning was the first time we ever addressed this between us, the first time it became more than friendship -” he cut himself off. 

“I thought you said nothing happened,” Nesta said.

“Nothing beyond a kiss,” he said tightly. 

“Was it a good one?” she asked, eyes dancing. 

“That you’ll have to ask her,” he said. “It’s not for me to say anything more about. She might want to forget it ever happened.”

“Is that why you’re in here, hiding?”

His wings flared a bit in irritation. “I’m not hiding.”

“You’re skulking, watching her from a window when you could be training with her, spending time with her,” she said, nodding to the view of the practicing females. 

“I didn’t know if she wanted others to know about last night,” he gritted out. “And I knew Cassian would smell it on us. And I’m not skulking, I was going to leave after a couple of moments, I just wanted…” he trailed off, frustrated. 

“What, to see her one more time today?” Nesta asked. “You say you don’t know if you’re in love with her, but the more I hear, the more convinced I am that you are.”

He didn’t say anything. She sensed he had reached his limit, the point in a conversation with Azriel when he was done speaking no matter what you tried to get him to say.

“Fine,” she said, setting her now-empty teacup in the sink. “Skulk away. But you and I have always had an honest friendship. I like to believe you see me as I am, and I do the same with you. Be irritated with me for stating the obvious if you’d like, but it won’t change the truth.”

She sauntered for the door, but his quiet voice had her pause. 

“I’m supposed to be in love with someone else,” he said. “I’ve always been in love with someone else.”

“I know,” she said, looking back at him. “So? Gwyn is her own person, a female separate from anyone else you’ve loved, any feelings you have - or once had. She’s amazing. And I trust you to know that.”

She left him to brood, and returned to her training.

After training was done, Gwyn lingered. 

Nesta nodded at her mate to go ahead into the House without her, and wandered over to where Gwyn stood fiddling with a cup on the water station. 

“Won’t you be late for your library duties? Merrill will have your hide,” Nesta said. 

But Gwyn only turned to her and said in a rush, “I was with Azriel last night.”

“Oh,” Nesta debated for a moment, then said, “I know.”

Gwyn’s eyes widened. “What? How did you know?”

“Cassian could smell him on you,” Nesta said. “And I saw Azriel in the kitchen. He didn’t tell me much that I hadn’t already guessed - just that you two have been spending more time together lately than I realized. Something about fried tarantula?”

Gwyn nodded, looking down at the water cup in her hand. “He’s become a friend,” she said. “A very dear friend. And this morning, we...well, we kissed. And last night, we fell asleep together. And that’s all that happened!” she said, looking up at Nesta. 

Nesta raised an eyebrow “You don’t have to defend yourself, you know,” she said. “It’s fine if something more did happen, if it one day happens. You’re not the kind of priestess who has to be celibate.”

“I know,” Gwyn whispered.

“Did it...frighten you?” Nesta asked delicately. “Do you not want anything further to happen?”

“It does frighten me,” Gwyn said. “But not for the reason you think. I did want more to happen. I was surprised by it, by how I felt when we kissed. It was…lovely,” she whispered. “It was lovely, and I wanted more, which frightened me, so I made him winnow me here before we could talk about it, and scrubbed myself twice over so you all wouldn’t ask nosy questions about it, and ran away from it because it was so lovely.”

Nesta couldn’t help smiling, which Gwyn noticed. “What?” she asked. 

“Nothing,” Nesta said. “I’m just happy for you. I love both of you. I’m glad you had a - lovely - time together.”

Gwyn groaned, and covered her eyes with her hands. “But I don’t know what to do about it!”

“How about you try talking to him, to start?” Nesta said. “And not running away.”

Gwyn nodded. “I suppose I should.” She fiddled with the sleeve of her robe as she started for the doors to the House, Nesta following. 

“Do you...do you think we could be good together?” she whispered, right before they entered the House. 

“Yes,” Nesta said. “I think so. You’re both kind and good. You’re two of the strongest warriors I’ve ever met. And you’re a singer and a shadowsinger.”

Gwyn smiled softly, and together they continued on into the warm embrace of the House. It already had tea waiting for them on a small table, steam curling up into the air.


End file.
